Mevo Plus: The Pocket Rocket
Mevo Plus is a pocket-sized live event video camera lets users edit directly from a mobile device as they stream. But is this the game-changing model it claims to be? Mark Currie, co-founder of Chocolate Films, puts it through its paces…
Enabling live streaming in 1080p HD to all major platforms, including Facebook Live, YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, plus the ability to capture video in 4K with the option to store and share, Mevo’s improvements could be compelling enough reasons to add it to your camera arsenal and, after working in the creative video industry for 17 years, I was pleasantly surprised.
One of its most impressive attributes is the way it is seamlessly controlled through the Mevo app, available for Android and iOS, which transforms your phone or tablet into a live editing suite.
This clever little camera allowed me to zoom, pan and cut in real - time with simple hand gestures, create up to nine custom angles, using Multi View manual or auto trackers and customise shots with advanced settings including brightness, saturation and other picture enhancing tools. It also shoots good quality footage and since I was broadcasting at HD, rather than 4K, I didn’t lose any of that quality in digital reframing. But like any streaming, it relies on a strong WIFI connection.
The only slight glitch was the sound - achieving a professional level of sound can be more challenging. However you can input audio through the lightning or mini-jack sockets on your phone and the app will mix it with the video. It was a little fiddly at first, but it works.
The Mevo Plus, which has reportedly already been used for high-profile productions, also has an autopilot mode powered by sophisticated face detection, advanced AI technology and movement tracking to ensure that your stream looks like it was produced by an editing pro. Small it maybe, smart definitely.